MX SUMMER 
ON -fHET^^RM 





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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




Wlieii I spent my summer on the farm. 



MY SUMMER ON 
THE FARM 



BY 

MARY A. SWIFT 



DELIGHTFULLY ILLUSTRATED 



(p. 



BROADWAY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MONTREAL NEW YORK LONDON 

1903 



T|4e LIBttAftV OF 

OONGRE&S, 
Tv»o C0W68 Rbobved 



;VC. ;"-!_, ^^S 

fDIJISS ^ XXft. NoJ 






Copyrighted in 1903 

BY 

MARY A. SWIFT. 



All Rights Reserved, 



TO 

PAULINE WOOD SWIFT 

This Little Book 
Is Lovingly Inscribed. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

When I Spent My Summer on the Farm, Frontispiece 

Page 
Aunt Kate, -------- 6 

Uncle Jack, - - ------ 8 • 

My Cousin, - - lo"^ 

The Old Farmhouse. 12 ■- 

The Red Barn, - - - - - - - 16 -' 

Boy and Dog, rS - 

Beside the Still Waters, ----- 22 • 

"We had Venison to Eat in our Camp," - - 24 

Coming Home from the Camp, - - - - 28 

Our Dog, -------- 30. 



MY SUMMER ON THE FARM 



When I found that I could leave the hot 
city and go to my cousin's on the farm I 
was very happy. Packing my little trunk 
with a few pretty muslin dresses, my sun 
hat and my canvas slippers, I found in a 
day's time I was ready for the journey. 
My mother came to the train with me, 
bought my ticket, and saw me 'off. 

The train was filled with people going 
for their Summer outing, not one more 
happy than I. As we left the city I began 
to see so many beautiful sights, and at last 
reached the little town, where my cousin 
met me with a white pony and what she 
called a buckboard. 

After putting my little truiik on the 
6 



My Summer on the Farm. 

buckboard we started for the farm. And 
such a delightful drive up and down hills, 
over little ridges, and through little 
groves of trees where the birds were sing- 
ing their joyous notes ! 

At last we came to my cousin's home, a 
white house with maple trees around it 
and an orchard wide, a well with its moss- 
grown bucket fastened with iron and near 
it a trough for the horses, and on the north 
were the red bams, with large doors that 
rolled back so we could drive in without 
getting off the buckboard. 

As we were going in the house Cousin 
said, "I hope you will enjoy your dinner." 
I assure you I did enjoy it, for I only had 
a lunch on the train that my mother put 
in the box for me. Such a lovely dinner 
6 




AUNT KATE. 



My Summer on the Farm. 

as Aunt Kate had! The table had a 
snow-white cover, and the dark-blue china 
that had pictures of old churches, trees 
and lakes. 

I had never seen anything so pretty. 
After a bountiful dinner we went in 
Cousin's front room, where Cousin played 
on an organ and Uncle Jack sang songs. 
Then she took me into her library. There 
she had books, stuffed birds, a bird of 
paradise, a magpie, the eared owl, a golden 
eagle and a king vulture. I thought how 
much nicer it was there, so cool and quiet, 
than it was in a busy, hot city. 

Aunt Kate said she wanted me to get a 
good night's rest, as there was to be a Sab- 
bath school picnic the next day. She 
gave me a little room looking out on the 
7 



My Swmmcf on the Fatm» 

flower garden. The sweet peas were all in 
blossom, and the perfume from them was 
so sweet. 

Waking in the morning from a peace- 
ful sleep, I was ready for the picnic. 
There came a team with a hay wagon, 
with a rack and seats all around it, to take 
the children to the grove. The seats were 
all taken by the little boys and girls, and 
they all had lunch baskets, with dainty 
cakes, cookies and sandwiches. Upon 
Teaching the grove "we found long tables 
ready for all the dainties, and swings 
hanging in the trees. There 'was an old 
stump where they had built stones around 
so as to make a fire. We picked up 
branches and sticks for a fire. Then they 
took a pail and went to the brook for 
8 




UNCLE JACK. 



My Summef on the Farm, 

water. Aunt Kate put in the coffee and 
hung the pail on a stick over the fire. In 
a few minutes a pail of lovely coffee was 
ready, and we all gathered around the 
table to enjoy a fine lunch. Then we 
gathered up all the dishes and put them in 
our baskets, and were ready for the swings 
and croquet. Some of the boys took their 
shoes off and waded the brook, Harry 
Atchison found a snake by the water, put 
it on a stick, and scared us girls almost to 
death. After a day's enjoyment we all 
took our seats in the hay wagon for home. 
The next morning we made nets to 
catch butterflies. And such fun ! We 
caught white ones, yellow and black ones, 
all-black ones and all-yellow ones. We 
had about twenty in a glass. 
9 



My Summer on the Farm* 

If you could look in Cousin's yard this 
morning and see the wheelbarrow with the 
loveliest peacock sitting on it with his tail 
spread with rainbow colors. Its head 
is a blue and red; tail dark green, light 
green, red and blue. And the dogs. My 
cousin has a Newfoundland and a Shep- 
herd. They are trained so they will draw 
sledges and little carriages. On that ac- 
count they are highly esteemed. The New- 
foundland is well known as a most faithful 
guardian of its master's property. It is 
very fond of water ; will fetch out any ar- 
ticle that its master indicates and lay it at 
his feet. Many instances are known of it 
saving lives of people who had fallen into 
water. The Shepherd dog is a rough, 
shaggy animal, with sharp-pointed ears 
10 




MY COUSIN. 



I 



My Sanuncf on the Famu 

and nose. It understands every look and 
gesture of its beloved master, and will 
drive the flock to any place which he 
points out. 

Uncle Jack has twenty cows. He al- 
ways sends Sport, the Shepherd dog, to 
the pasture for them. He will get them 
all without anyone going with him. 

Uncle Jack takes the milk every morn- 
ing on an old cart to the .factory where 
they make the milk into cheese. They 
first make it into cheese curd, then put it 
in a big hoop for a day ; then it comes out 
of the hoop a round, solid cheese. 
"XUncle Jack keeps two men working on 
the farm, hoeing potatoes and corn, and all 
kinds of work. They are going to com- 
mence haying, and Uncle said if Cousin 
11 



My Summer on the Farm^ 

and I will help rake after the cart that 
after haying he will take us to the woods 
to his camp, and perhaps we might see a 
deer. Cousin and I said we would be very 
glad. We did, and it was fun. I had a 
long-handled rake and so did Cousin. One 
man was on the cart and the other pitched 
on the hay. We would gather up what he 
could not get on his fork. They would get 
a load, and then the man would help us on 
and we would ride to the barn. After a 
few days the haying was done, and Uncle 
said: "Now, girls, I will take you to the 
woods." He took bread, potatoes, bacon, 
beans and butter, for he said we would go 
to his camp and he would do the cooking. 
So we took the white horse and buckboard 
and started. Drove over hills, stones and 
12 



My Stimmer on the Farm. 

stumps. I never saw anything so bad as 
the roads all through the woods. At last 
we reached IJncle^s camp, a little log 
house covered with bark. The door was 
locked. There was an old padlock hanging 
to the door. Uncle took from his pocket a 
big brass key and unlocked it. We 
went in. There was an old rusty stove, a 
crossed-leg table and four old chairs, some 
old iron kettles, tin plates, steel knives 
and tin spoons. There was a cupboard 
and it fastened with a wooden button. 

Uncle Jack chopped down a tree, split it 
up, and we helped carry in some wood. 
Uncle started a fire, put on the kettle with 
water, and soon had some potatoes ready 
for it; fried bacon, made coffee, and we 
had a nice dinner. 

13 



My Stinimcf on the Farm. 

After dinner Uncle took his paddle and 
canoe down to the river. We went up the 
winding river for two miles. Uncle said, 
"Keep very still, and perhaps we will see a 
deer.^' We came floating down as still, 
and just on a bank where there was deep 
grass, what do you think ? There stood a 
handsome red deer or stag with lovely 
horns. But as soon as he saw us he took 
one leap out of sight. He gave a blow 
that sounded like a horse. 

Our first night in the camp was glorious 
in its slumbers. Hemlock feathers for 
beds, blankets and mosquito bars made us 
entirely comfortable, and the deep stillness 
soothed us more gently than music itself 
and utter forgetfulness of all the fatigues 
of our journey. 

14 



My Summef on the Farm, 

When breakfast'' was shouted in our 
camp we were up and dressed. We had a 
wash-basin, a piece of soap on a chip, a 
towel on a limb, and a pocket comb, and in 
a twinkling our toilet was made. 

One day Uncle said he would go up in 
the woods and see what he could get. He 
wasn't gone long before we heard the re- 
port of a gun, and soon saw Uncle coming 
with a fine buck on his back that he had 
shot. He put a pole on the corner of the 
camp, and soon had the buck hung up; 
then dressed it, and for the rest of the 
time we were in camp we had delicious 
venison to eat. Every night Uncle had a 
campfire built of brush. We sat and 
watched the sparks fly in the air. The re- 
flection of the light on the little river was 
15 



My Summer on the Farm. 

as pretty as any fireworks I had ever seen 
at home. And on a cedar tree not far from 
US sat an owl. Every few minutes it would 
call out, "Hoo, hoc ! Hoo, hoo !" Uncle 
would answer, and it came nearer and 
nearer until we could see it. It has a 
large body and a big head, little ears and 
large eyes ; can see at night, but blind in 
daylight. We could hear the whippoorwill. 

After a week's fun Uncle said we would 
have to go home. We locked up everything 
and started through the woods, drove 'over 
stumps and stones, and at last reached 
home. 

Aunt Kate was glad to see us. She 

said Uncle had come in time to make a 

coop for the chickens. I ran to the barn 

to see them. There were twelve downy 

16 



I 



My Summer on the Farm« 

little things that looked just like little 
canary birds, 'there were also ducks that 
looked just like little brown bugs around 
trying to catch flies. We were all tired 
after our long drive, and were glad to go to 
our rooms for the night. 

Waking in the morning with the bright 
sun shining in my room, I was made 
happy by hearing Aunt Kate's sweet voice 
calling us to breakfast. After breakfast 
we took our little pails and went a- 
berrying. Came home and had a delight- 
ful lunch under an apple tree whose broad 
branches swept the ground on all sides of 
us. 

Cousin sent a small boy to dig worms, 
and she brought out two fish rods, an- 
nouncing that she and I would furnish 
17 



My Summet on the farm, 

trout for dinner the next day. The small 
boy was ready to carry my worms, bait my 
hook and take off my fish and carry them 
for me, for I never could bring myself to 
carry worms or fish ; they squirm so. The 
brook on my housings farm runs with a 
gentle slope, here and there a little fall, 
cornerwise of a large pasture. A smaller 
brook, which joins it below the pasture, 
winds in a zigzag course through a flat 
meadow, and has scarcely a fall or ripple 
in its whole length, and is not more than 
two or three feet wide. Having my choice 
of fishing grounds, the larger brook, with 
its little songs over the pebbles and with 
no tall grass where snakes could hide, was 
my choice. The small boy thought it best 
to start at a clump of alders and fish down 
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Boy and Dog. 



My Stimmcf on the Farm. 

the brook, as he said, "Mamma catches ten 
or fourteen down through here, and that 
will be enough for you and me." Just 
below the alders the water flowed over a 
large flat rock and fell about a foot into a 
basin, and here I felt sure my first fish was 
just waiting for the hook. The small boy 
put the fattest, most squirmy worm on my 
hook, and in I let it drop. Something 
seemed to grab it and pull it under the 
stone, but when I pulled up my line there 
was nothing but the worm on the hook. I 
tried again and again, with the same re- 
sult, and finally concluded it must be the 
current and not a fish drawing my hook 
down the stream. 

A little way off an old elm, whose roots 
on one side of the stream had washed bare, 

19 



1 



My Stjmmer on the Fann, 

beckoned to me with its long arms. Here 
my hook scarcely reached the water when 
it was snatched by just the loveliest 
speckled beauty, that looked a foot or more 
long in the water, but was only about 
eight inches. 

From there down my hook only caught 
between stones and on alders, and not an- 
other fish, and in half an hour I was tired 
of it; so the small boy took my rod, and, 
with my beautiful trout on a stringer, we 
went to find my cousin. 

Climbing a near-by hill, we could look 
down 'on the meadow, with its waving 
grass. The tall maple woods beyond cast 
a shadow half-way across it, and the little 
thread of a brook ran up to the woods and 
then ran away again, out almost to the 

20 



My Summer on the Farm. 

edge of the shadow, as if trying to reach 
the sunlight. 

Cousin stood about half-way down the 
brook, knee-deep in the grass, and so in- 
tent on her fishing she did not see us or 
appear to notice .three blackbirds that 
circled, screaming, around her. The small 
boy ran down and called her away. 

When her fish were strung with mine 
there were nineteen trout, as near of a size 
as if someone had cut them all by the same 
measure. Standing together on the hill- 
top. Cousin looks back and, with the love- 
light of Nature brightening her face, 
quotes : 

''By groves made green from that bright 
streamlet's wave; 
Soft are its slopes and cool its fragrant 
shades." 

21 



My Summer on the F^tta* 

"And holy all the spirit of the spot. Unto 
this time only the streams and slop- 
ing lawns and gentle aid abide "un- 
changed/' 

As Uncle and I were walking one day 
we saw a green lizard. He was a bright- 
eyed little creature, a foot in length, 
and was basking in the sun. Uncle said 
they deposited fourteen or fifteen eggs in 
the sand, they are hatched by the heat of 
the sun, and the young immediately lead 
an independent life. 

I saw grass snakes. Uncle said they 
were harmless, and that they lived on 
frogs, mice and young birds. He said 
they shed their entire skins several times 
during the year, even the covering of their 
22 



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'Beside the still waters. 



My Summer on the Farm. 

eyes: a rent opens in the neck, and 
the snake will entangle itself in thick grass 
or brush and creep ont of its skin, turning 
it wrong side out. 

As we sit on the lawn evenings we see 
the glow-worms shedding their pale-green 
lights; and the musk beetle, which is a 
large insect, and when touched it emits a 
curious sound, not unlike a bat, but more 
resembling the scratching of a slate pencil 
when held perpendicular. 

Uncle has a great many bees, and such 
useful little creatures ! I would sit and 
see them work as they flew from flower to 
flower and to the sweet clover, and then 
would fly to their hives, where they stored 
the sweetness of the flowers. There was 
plenty of honey for the table, and it was 
23 



My Summer on the Farm. 

delicious. One night in the clear honey 
on my plate there were some cells that had 
a dark-brown substance in them which 
Uncle said was bee bread ; that it was the 
pollen of flowers that the bees gathered on 
their legs. 

The young people wanted to have 
a lawn party, and thought Uncle Jack's 
lawn the nicest place; so Aunt Kate 
said we could have it there. There 
Were George Thomas, Fred Hays, Clarence 
and Harlow Christy, Eichard Story, Lin- 
coln Grayson, Fletcher Beaumont, Fred 
Strafford, John Stout, Jack Howard and 
Tommy Tucker. The girls were Lizzie 
Kimbal, Margaret Dow, Mary Grayson, 
Grace Tucker, Florence Chase, Hattie 
Bump, Sadie Nichols, Blanche Willis, 
Maude Max, Cousin, and myself. 

24: 




"We had venison to eat in our camp. 



My Summer on the Farm* 

"We worked all day arranging everything 
for the evening, strung lanterns in the 
trees, made seats all around the yard, and 
hung hammocks, put up two tents, and 
made a platform where we could dance. 
Uncle hired old John Maxfield to come 
with his fiddle. 

Night came, and such a happy crowd ! 
All the girls in their pink, blue and white 
dresses. The boys all looked nice. John 
Maxfield took his chair on the platform. 
The boys called for a quadrille. Fred 
Strafford and I led the dance. If you 
could have heard the echo of John Max- 
field's voice when he called out, "All hands 
round!" We danced until 10 o'clock. 
Then the boys took the girls to supper. 
The children's mothers furnished it, and 
25 



My Summer on the Farm. 

were there to wait upon us. They had 
raised biscuits, roll jelly cake, and a pyra- 
mid cake in the center of the table with 
twenty-three lighted candles, cup cakes, 
with all colored candies, cold chicken, and 
lemonade. It was a delightful night for 
us all, with the beautiful moon shining 
over us. 

At 12 o'clock we said good-night and 
thanked our kind people for giving us 
such a delightful time. 

There was to be. a circus in a village 
nine miles from Uncle's. Cousin and I 
wanted to go. Uncle said we had been 
good girls all Summer, and he would take 
us. Such a time driving there! There 
were as many as twenty teams, all hurry- 
ing to get to the village. Some were run- 
26 



My Stjmmcf on the Farm. 

ning their horses, so we had to drive in 
the ditches and do everything to keep from 
being run over. I wished we had stayed 
at home, but finally we got there without 
an accident. 

As we drove into the village they were 
having their parade. There was a wagon 
with a band sitting on top playing. Then 
followed a wagon with a large leopard in a 
cage, another with a tiger, and then a 
man with a black bear, a cage with a 
gorilla and little ones, a cage of lions, and 
a cage of Angora cats. Then followed a 
man with a group of dogs, then a cage 
with a wolf, a cage with a grizzly bear; 
then followed a man with an African ele- 
phant, a cage with cockatoos; and then 
followed little ponies and a steam piano. 
%1 



My Summct on the Farm. 

It was a lively time on the street. Just a 
crowd of old men, women and children. 
They went to the tent and the crowd fol- 
lowed. In the tent they had three rings. 
Some were performing on bars. There 
were elephants with clowns trying to 
jump over them, chariot races, dogs jump- 
ing through hoops, ladies riding on run- 
ning horses. They had a side show, with 
a lady with big snakes wound around her 
neck, and a cage of monkeys. A tent with 
long-haired girls and the little dwarfs; 
the woman who lifts the heavy weights. A 
tent with ostriches, a tent where they 
were telling fortunes — side shows of all 
kinds. There was so much noise and con- 
fusion that we were glad to go home. 
September came and the county fair, 
28 




Coining Home from the Camp. 



My Summef on the Fann, 

and such a display of fine cattle and 
horses, all kinds of fowls, all kinds of car- 
riages and working utensils. There was 
the Floral Hall, with all kinds of fancy 
work, paintings^ flowers and household 
products. On the grounds were the 
"merry-go-rounds," shooting gallery and 
dance hall. Then on the track they had 
horse racing, baseball, football, balloon as- 
censions. On the grounds were dining- 
halls, stands of fruit, and photograph gal- 
leries. Everything is going on at once — 
a perfect museum. We bought what they 
called a squeaker, had our pictures taken, 
and rode on the "merry-go-round." 

After watching the horse races and the 
balloon ascension Uncle said we would 
have to go home. On reaching home we 

2d 



My Summer on the Farm. 

found a letter from my mother saying I 
would have to come home next week, for 
school was going to commence in two 
weeks. As much as I want to see my 
mother, it makes me feel sad to leave my 
uncle and aunt and cousin and all the 
young people who had given me such a 
lovely time. 

On Monday my trunk was packed and 
Cousin took me to the train. Aunt Kate 
said Cousin could come and see me Christ- 
mas-time. 

Let me say to my little friends there is 
nothing so fine as spending a Summer in 
the country. 



30 



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Our Dog. 



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